Stark Tower
by Thor27
Summary: The Avengers asembled to fight the foes no single heroes could withstand. Unfortunatley, genecidal maniacs don't rampage every day.
1. Avengers Mansion

_Stark Tower_

_Chapter 1_

_Avengers Mansion_

_Part 1_

Tony was doing his worst impression of Thor's first encounter with cheese. He had done it every time they'd eaten cheese for the last month and a half, but it had gotten old about two days in. Even though Clint and Natasha didn't really care, Steve could tell that once more impression and Bruce couldn't be held responsible for what the "other guy" did. It had been six months since Bruce's last outburst, and he didn't want to break that streak anytime soon.

After Loki's Chituari invasion, the Avengers had all gone their separate ways, but about six months previously they had teamed up again to stop another Blonsky rampage, this time deciding to stick together. Unfortunately, Stark Tower was beginning to get a little crowded. It was now populated by the Avengers, Pepper Potts, Rhodey and, if SHIELD can find him, Spider-man. Thor had also insisted on Lady Sif and The Warriors Three staying whenever they could, and Loki showed up out of nowhere once a month for what he called "Mischief Day". Multitudes of SHIELD agents flooded most levels. Steve had decided it was time to speak up.

"Guys," he said, "I think we should get a bigger place."

"Why would you want to live somewhere without my name on the side in big neon letters?" asked Tony.

"Because _everyone _is here! SHIELD, your company, Thor's asgardian friends, heck, I think I even saw the Lizard in the basement!" Steve answered.

"He's right," added Clint. "If this team is gonna be separate from SHIELD, we're gonna have to move away from them."

"Then it is decided!" bellowed Thor. "We shall move our palace elsewhere!"

* * *

"So I've designed the mansion to resemble my childhood home, except with _much_ better tech and customised bedrooms," explained Tony, showing the team the holographic blueprints.

"Wait," interrupted Bruce. "What's that?" he gestured to a red folder in the hologram labelled "In case of emergency"

"That," replied Tony, "is none of your business."

Tony continued to run them through the complex blueprint, Steve and Thor repeatedly stopping to ask about several features unavailable where they came from. Eventually, Natasha stopped him.

"Who will be building this?" she asked.

"SHIELD."

"Wasn't the purpose of the exercise to separate ourselves from SHIELD?"

"It was."

"So isn't that kind of redundant?"

Tony paused. "Please hold all questions until the end of the presentation."

* * *

After six long months of construction, the Avengers Mansion was finished.

"Now, I know this is exciting," Tony said, "but I would just like to say… please don't hog the bandwidth."

Each team member split off and found their own personalised room. Thor entered his second-story dwelling to discover an astoundingly accurate Asgardian royal chamber, with walls made of solid gold. Steve walked into his old bedroom from the forties. Literally. Tony had bought everything, or the remains of everything, from Steve's forties bedroom. Even the bricks smelled like a black-and-white cartoon. Natasha's room was filled with her training equipment, including a motion sensor she activated by entering, which detonated several small explosives. Clint's room was filled with complex targets, and the closet contained a Robin Hood suit (complete with tights) and a Cupid costume. Bruce entered his room to find a lab filled with all of the intricate equipment he'd need to find a cure, and a bed in the center.

That night at dinner, only Tony was happy. The place had been built _perfectly_ for him, but there were many problems the others had; Bruce had found himself locked in his room because JARVIS saw his unique GAMMA signature as a threat, there were cameras hidden all over Natasha's room, the Robin Hood and Cupid costumes that found their way back to Clint's closet no matter how many times he removed them, artificial thunderstorms in Thor's room and gunfire in Steve's room to "make him feel more at home".

They chatted amicably up until the moment War Machine came crashing through the roof, his armour scratched and melted in several places.

"Rhodey?" Tony enquired.

"Where the hell have you been?" Rhodey asked. "I've been tryin' to call reinforcements for a half-hour."

"What's happening?" Steve asked.

His question was answered by a strange scorpion-man crashing through the roof, his face human but his body looked as though some kind of green slime had taken a humanoid form. His right hand was a massive claw, and a menacing scorpion tail hung behind him, dripping with acid. The Scorpion roared at the group, and ran down one of the corridors. Clint and Thor followed it, but he was gone.


	2. Avengers Mansion Part 2

_**STARK TOWER**_

_**CHAPTER 2**_

_**AVENGERS MANSION**_

_**PART 2**_

After the foul Scorpion had burst into the dining room and spoilt everyone's evening, the Avengers and split into pairs to search the mansion vast hallways to find the beast. Iron man and Captain America had chosen to wander the higher levels, Thor and Bruce explored the common areas on the ground floor, and Hawkeye and the Black Widow searched the labs and basements.

As Steve and Tony searched the darkened attic, ready for anything, a thought struck the Golden Avenger.

"Hey, Steve. Why don't we turn the lights on?" asked Tony.

Steve stopped.

"Why didn't we think of that earlier?" he replied, rhetorically.

Tony told JARVIS to turn on the lights, and their mission became much simpler.

"Barton," the Captain said into his communicator half an hour later, "Anything to report?"

"Nope noth…" the archer began, "What the hell was that? Thor?"

* * *

About five minutes earlier, Clint and Natasha began to search Tony's workshop. Clint had his bow outstretched, armed with an electric arrow.

"What is this thing anyway?" Clint asked.

"I don't know, but I saw something similar last month, when I went undercover at OsCorp." replied the ginger assassin, "Except it was less of a Scorpion, more of a Rhino."

"What is wrong with these people?"

"We've spent the last six months living with Tony Stark and Bruce Banner, you should know by now that scientists are weird."

"Right, so, anyway. I was thinking. Maybe once we've locked up the freaky illegal mutated Scorpion, we could maybe get dinner or something?"

Natasha paused, but the silence was ended by a transmission from the team leader.

"Barton. Anything to report?" he asked.

"Nope, noth…" Clint stopped mid-sentence as a loud cry echoed through the building. "What the hell was that? Thor?"

The assassins ran through the building and found Thor and Bruce unconscious in the kitchen. Thor had massive scars along his right arm, and Bruce had stabbed a tranquilizer into his leg.

"What could do this to a god?" Natasha pondered.

"Heads up," Clint said into his earpiece, "This thing is stronger than we thought."

"How much stronger" Iron man asked.

"Thor is unconscious with severe burns."

"And Banner?" asked the Captain.

"He tranquilized himself before the other guy could wake up." commented Natasha.

A roar sounded from behind them.

"Sounds like we might need the other guy." Hawkeye said, before firing several arrows at the beast.

"You think _that _will stop it?" critiqued Natasha.

"No," the archer replied, "but this will."

Hawkeye pressed a button on his bow and the arrows impaled in the Scorpion released strong electrical charges. It screamed, and then pulled the arrows out.

"Then again, I have been wrong before."

Iron man burst through the roof above it and punched its face into the ground. The Scorpion fired a corrosive acid from its tail and all over Iron man. Parts of his armour melted all over the floor, exposing and damaging many critical systems. Tony fell to the ground, unable to move his heavily damaged suit. Captain America fell through the hole left in the roof, and began to show Scorpion that not all ninety-year-olds are as weak as they seem. The Scorpion swiped at Steve with its tail, and threw him through the wall. Black Widow and Hawkeye began firing off as many rounds/arrows as they could, but the beast would not give in. Then, instead of shooting the Scorpion, Natasha shot Bruce (in the leg). He gasped in pain as he awoke, and then roared in fury as the Hulk was unleashed. He grabbed Scorpion by the tail, swung him around a few times, and then just let go. He roared, and then leaped after the Scorpion.

"We're gonna hafta move back into Stark Tower, aren't we." Hawkeye rhetorically asked, looking around at the wreckage.

"Yep." Replied Natasha.

"I look forward to it," Tony added from across the room, "Now can somebody please help me take off this armour before it melds itself with my body."


	3. Flu

_**STARK TOWER**_

_**Chapter 3**_

_**FLU**_

Tony's mornings had never been particularly normal. He would wake up at 6 and tinker with his armour, get yelled at by his teammates for playing loud heavy metal at 6 in the morning, train with Captain America, then eat "Froot Loops" (with vodka instead of milk). But he could still tell when something was out of the ordinary. So when Thor didn't get up on a rainy Tuesday, Tony felt unsettled. He entered the thunderers' room to find him still in bed, looking unusually pale.

"Ah, hello friend Stark!" the god exclaimed, before rolling over and vomiting all over the floor.

* * *

The rest of the team (and Pepper) assembled in the briefing room where they spoke to Director Fury on a holo-screen.

"First," said Fury, "I would like to thank Mr Stark for alerting me to the situation. An alien disease could prove extremely dangerous."

"How so?" asked Clint.

Bruce stepped forward. "The Asgardians are much stronger, and more durable than we are. Their bodies are used to fighting diseases more powerful than the ones that humans usually encounter. While it may only keep Thor in bed for a few days, there's a strong chance it could kill everyone else."

"That," the director continued, "is exactly why Stark Tower is under quarantine until further notice. Good luck."

* * *

Two days later, nobody else on the team had succumbed to the "Super-flu". Until, while training with Steve, Clint sneezed up a pile of mucus the size of a pizza. He was immediately sent to bed. When Bruce went up to his room to examine him, the room was slightly chillier. The whole room was frozen, with icicles hanging down from the roof. Bruce stepped deeper into the room and saw Clint, lying in bed, bright blue.

"S-s-so c, c-c-cold." he mumbled, his eyes a burning crimson. Bruce took a blood sample and left the room, only to have Tony burst out of his room and slammed into the wall, coughing and spluttering.

"Don't *coughcough*, don't go into my room." Tony spluttered.

"Why?" inquired Bruce.

"Pepper is smoking *cough*. Literally. She may have Thor's disease."

With three members of the household sick, things were beginning to get complicated. Pepper could no longer make dinner, Thor refused to tell anyone were he kept his meade until he had recovered, and the rest of the team had begun to stay off Clint's level in an attempt to avoid frostbite. Bruce took blood samples from everyone that had been quarantined in an attempt to cure it, and the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents that brought food were beginning to slowly raise the amount of time between drops. A few days later, at breakfast, things were beginning to be slightly more normal until Natasha sneezed. It was only a small sneeze, but Steve backed away when it combusted spontaneously. Tony didn't back away until Natasha combusted spontaneously. She was rushed to what Tony had told her was a fire proof room, but was actually an anti-gravity room, where she would float until the sickness past.

"Sirs," JARVIS said, "Dr Banner is requesting your presence in the laboratory."

Steve and Tony walked down to the lab, where Bruce greeted them with good news.

"The serum in Steve's blood is rejecting the foreign cells in a way that our blood won't." Bruce stated, "I've managed to synthesize a formula with the same cell that have kept Steve immune."

"Great," said Tony, paling. "coz' I think I might need it."

He fell to the floor, the disease wreaking havoc with his chest reactor. Bruce gave Steve the formula, walked over to the other side of the room, and changed. But this Hulk was grey, and when it sneezed, the vintage cars Tony kept in the lab flew into the wall and fragmented. Steve turned to the barely alive Stark and stabbed the syringe into his neck.

"Formula has stabilised." JARVIS announced. Mr Stark should make a full recovery in thirty-minutes. Would you like me to synthesize more, Captain Rogers?"

Steve sighed in relieve. "Yes, please."

* * *

The next day, once everyone had recovered, Clint approached Natasha in her room.

"You feeling better?" he asked.

"Yeah, you?" she replied.

"I'm fine. But you still haven't answered my question."

"And what question would that be?"

"You know what question."

She turned and walked to the window. "Clint, you know from personal experience that these things don't work. I don't want to hurt you."

He left the room, and she was alone, cursing herself in Russian.


End file.
